Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus on Their Young Adult Book, Over You

What's the cure for a broken heart? Bestselling authors Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus attempt to answer the age-old question through the protagonist in their latest novel, Over You. After a boy breaks seventeen-year-old Max Scott's heart, she launches a business to help girls in New York City bounce back from tough breakups. Naturally, things get complicated when Max's ex-boyfriend shows up on her doorstep. McLaughlin and Kraus aim to send a message to teenage girls that it takes courage and resilience to face heartbreak. We spoke to the authors about their collaborative writing style, favorite young adult books, and which actress they'd like to play Max in a film adaption.

When did you first pair up as writing partners?

Nicola: "Emma and I met at New York University in the mid-nineties, and we discovered that we were both nannying to pay our way through school. We stayed friends, and five years later, we were both unhappy with our jobs and Emma suggested that we write a book about nannying as a fun thing to do together. We've been writing together for almost thirteen years."

After evoking personal experiences to write The Nanny Diaries, what inspired Over You?

Emma: "Getting over heartbreak is something we've always been fascinated by, whether it's professional, personal, friendship, or romantic heartbreak. We look for skills and secrets—is there a roadmap for moving through pain and rejection? We had this fantasy: when we had our first experiences of getting dumped, what if a girl showed up who had all the answers? This girl eventually became Max Scott in Over You. The story gave us a chance to give voice to all of the little lessons we've learned over the years about moving through heartbreak. There's not much out there about getting through it."

Can you describe the protagonist, Max Scott? What's she like?

Nicola: "Max Scott is seventeen years old. She dropped out of high school because she had her heart broken and wanted to forge her own path. She has her own business with two assistants: a pay-it-forward program to get girls in high school over the boys who've brought their lives to screeching halts. We wanted to pay respect to how physically painful it is to get your heart broken, especially when everyone's telling you these are the best years of your life. It's hard when adults say, 'Time will make it better.' That advice isn't helpful at all. At the adolescent age, it feels like you're breakup is about your worth, attractiveness, and lovability, and to have someone like Max Scott come in and re-frame it for you is invaluable."

What do you consider the hallmarks of the young adult genre? Why do you think these books resonate with such a wide audience?

Nicola: "What makes YA fiction so awesome—and why we're excited to be writing it—is because we get to talk about the first time something happens to you. YA books speak respectfully to what's true about being a teenager, when you don't have a lot of experiences to compare anything you're going through yet. Everything's still the first, and the first of anything is frequently excruciating and scary."

Emma: "There's an incredible new book out by a woman named Rebecca Serle called When You Were Mine."

Can you describe your writing process? How do you work together?

Emma: "We come up with the idea for the book based on something that's bothering us about popular culture, and that we want to find a solution for or turn on its head. We create an outline together, which we hate doing. We hated it in high school, and it's still the worst thing that we do, but it's necessary. We figure out together the arches of the characters and the scope of the story. Then, we break that up into six scene or chapters, and we write our chapters separately. We edit them for each other, string them together, and then edit them side-by-side until the publisher wrestles it from our computers. It took us about a year to write this."

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Do you think you'll write a sequel to Over You?

Nicola: "We'd love to! We see Max taking on many things in many places."

You've already seen one of your books made into a movie. Who would you cast as Max in a film adaption?

Nicola: "Shailene Woodley, who was fantastic in The Descendants! She's amazing. If you're out there Shailene, we love you."